


Baby!Mercury AU

by lover_of_blue_roses



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: (for the moment at least), Gen, No mpreg, Not beta'd we die like men, When Does This Take Place?, and all the other band members children are fictional, and freddie doesn't die, au where freddie has a child, happy fluffy, not time line or canon compliant, they adopt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-09-28 14:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17184434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_blue_roses/pseuds/lover_of_blue_roses
Summary: Freddie Mercury doesn't get ill and instead adopts a child with Jim; these are AUs one-shots of the child





	1. Timeline, basic info

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jim_mercury](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jim_mercury/gifts).



> Completely taken from the prompts discussed on jim-mercury.tumblr.com
> 
> 100% of the children are fictional. I understand that the band members had children but that feels weird and invasive so these ones are all fictional
> 
> I take all kinds of criticism, critique, grammar nitpicking and so on

Freddie - Dad  
Jim - Papa  
Azalea (Mercury) Hutton [she doesn't have her Dad's last name because they are a private family] ~ 1996

Band Member Children:  
Myra Taylor ~1998  
Timothy Austin ~1986  
William Deacon ~1977

 

Band Member grandchildren:  
Chris Deacon ~1996  
Steven May ~1997


	2. Pre-baby Jitters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Freddie [he]’d spend a lot of time picking out paint colours and designing the baby’s room and the baby’s wardrobe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from https://bohemian-rhapsody-slash.tumblr.com/post/181586482860/so-get-this-jimercury-but-with-mpreg-and
> 
> @KyluxFicHell on AO3

It's Jim's idea to have a baby, they've been together long enough certainly. And at first Freddie isn't sure, he didn't want one before but he was a different person then. Freddie stopped partying hard since 1986 and he feels like now he's a more mature, relaxed person and he thinks, responsible. Also, as much work as a baby is, they aren't planning on getting an infant but a toddler. Between the three of the men living full-time at Garden Lodge and Freddie, who's touring schedule is considerably lighter, they should be able to manage.

Once Freddie flips the switch in his mind from no baby to yes baby, he goes a little crazy. Everything has to be baby proofed. Jim and Joe argue that they only need to do that in the rooms where the baby will be left but Freddie is borderline paranoid with anxiety. Any little thing could be dangerous and better safe than sorry. On the brightside the house has never looked neater. Everything is organized and additional storage is bought until it looks like a blind person lives there, everything has a place and everything in its place.

Freddie then calms down, although he can still be found reading baby raising books and calling John at odd hours. After the freak out and stress, he gets excited. What to decorate the baby's room? Will it be a boy or a girl? Do we care about gender roles and will they be suggested in the house? No. It's clear that Freddie is going to go all out and deck out the whole room they have chosen. Jim understand there is little he can do to curve his husband's enthusiasm but asks that theme not be golden glitter or glamor.

They have the whole room cleared of furniture and Freddie sits on the floor in the middle of the room on the floor and stares, for hours. Honestly it's a little worrying. He has dozens of decoration magazines spread out in front of him and cuts out everything he likes, which is almost everything. He is considerate of Jim's opinion and so unlike the rest of the house that is extra this will be more toned down but still have an antique feel. It's all centered around an antique wooden toddler bed with railings and a gauges canopy.

It wouldn't be particularly safe to cover the walls completely with paintings as they did in the rest of the house. And Freddie wasn't going to have anything as cheap as posters on the walls. So he hires painters to paint directly onto the walls. In the end Freddie decides on a forest scene with blues and oranges, greens and yellows and browns. It's an early morning scene with lots of animals from; butterflies to turtle doves, squirrels, deers and whatnot. None of the animals look out of the scene to make eye contact with the viewer as to not be 'creepy.'

There's a thick white lambskin on the mattress for comfort and as tradition. Nightlights, music boxes and children's comfort toys. There's a foam rug on the floor for them to play on that looks like a field of grass with bugs and flowers. The room has two trunks. They are both wooden antiques. One large enough for her to play in filled with spare linen and a hinge pin so it doesn't accidentally close and fall on her head. The other one is smaller and for toys. There was also a giant painted wardrobe.

Adoption allows them to be more picky than most expecting parent and so they decide they want a girl. (Their only request besides gender and the one that was actually taking a while was the hope that this child resembled one of the birthparents and/or shared facial similarities with child. It wasn't just a question of ego or pride but because this would make it a lot easier in public.) Once this is decided Freddie can start picking out more of the wardrobe. He had already picked unisex onesies that looked like a cow or Totoro, shorts with prints like galaxies and stripes, shirts that said dumb 'witty' things and the cutest hats ever. But now he went all out.

He spent his days shopping in every baby clothing store in London. Phoebe goes with him most days and generally serves as little more than a bag carrier. It wasn't as though they had bought a baby sized wardrobe, this was an adult one for adult clothing. And Freddie absolutely filled it to the brim. 'Modern' (90's) looking clothing with major coloring blocking and stripes, mostly in red, blue, green, and yellow. But also classical looking whites with laces, pleating, collars and bloomers.

Jim was a little concerned that Freddie was mustering his enthusiasm for a child by focusing on the exciting things like dressing her like a doll. He was right in the end to have faith in his husband and keep mum about the subject.

The day the lady from the adoption agency arrives, she calls ahead in the morning to make sure they'll be there and in the afternoon. This turns them all into useless idiots that sit there unmoving for hours. Mary arrives around noon and tries to shake them awake. She makes to get Joe to put on some tea and pull out some biscuits but they just poke at their food and sip at their drinks while staring into the distance. She despairs of her hopeless men. Not that either of her husbands where better when she was in labor.

When the doorbell rings the boys jump out of their skins and Mary just sighs. The lady is the same from the meeting and she has by the hand a lovely little toddler. Their little bundle of joy has black hair and black eyes of ambiguous ethnicity. She has soft hooded eyes and a wide happy smile to see them and is happy and eager to be picked up when Jim bends down. She laughs and smiles stroking at his mustache. None of them could be happier with their thirty-pound package.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right Totoro came out in 1988 which means fan of everything Japanese Freddie Mercury would definitely have been all over that. 
> 
> I must say I love the tag 'not beta'd we die like men' it gives me life


	3. Little Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little lady needs to go to school but this is more difficult for her parents than it is for her. Poor boys have to watch their baby leave them for hours every day.

The biggest concern, as it will make up most of Azalea's days, is schooling. Due to the absolute frenzy of the press she can't attend public school. Freddie wishes it wasn't that way, like with his fellow bandmates' children but as frontman is far more famous and 'oddness' of his same-sex relationship so it is the price of his fame.

He won't allow his his daughter to be raised anywhere but under his roof. Freddie remembers how alone and detached from his parents he felt when he left for boarding school. He doesn't ever want that for her.  
So at first Freddie contemplates just hiring tutors, fortunately they realize how damaging it would be for her to grow up isolated from her peers. Especially at such a young age, forced solitude would be detrimental. 

It's impossible to be certain what the best decision is and so they decide to be part of a homeschooling group. A group of rich discreet parents have tutors come and give lessons for the children and socialisation in the safety and sanctuary of their gated homes. Jim fears the children will be spoiled brats. So on her 'first' day of school as their child (she did go to preschool before) the four men all worry and double check her backpack in concern. Azalea isn't worried though, she has a nice happy new family that care for her. And she was given striped leggings to wear under her tutu. What more could a girl want?

While Terry is of course capable to drive her there himself the other four men pile in to be with her until the last minute. Her dads holds her hands the whole way there and fuss and worry like the big papa bears they are. It makes her laugh. 

She steps out of the car in front of the lovely Keen estate and hears her dad start to say, "What if she needs-" Before someone slams the door and the car drives away. If they had let Freddie out of the car to greet the Keen Nanny, he would have fussed and insisted on tea and then end up staying the whole day. 

Azalea looks up at the Keen Nanny that has a frozen smile of her face and her hand halfway raised as though to shake a hand. Azalea thus takes this hand is firm shake, "My parents are a little worried for me." The Nanny nods, amused. Azalea too is amused. Freddie can be much when he worries.

"Come let me show you to the children." And so the rest of the day is spent with people her age as they learn and play. The tutor is very generous, understanding that hard work isn't what they want to be doing on such a warm sunny day and thus they play educational games outside in large Keen garden. They mostly fight with stick swords (once they have appropriately devised strategies) and negotiate the peace treaties/ terms of surrender. When Azalea says it isn't as nice as the Garden Lodge's garden the little Miss Keen isn't offended at all but rather eager and interested in seeing how it compares. Plans have already been made to rotate where the sessions take place but the children are eager to be told that they'll all be visiting in two weeks. 

When it comes time for them to visit the children have been very carefully warned of how fragile the furniture and decorates are in the house. Most live in equally fragile houses and in this way very well behaved. It doesn't hurt that their tutor decides to give them a history lesson on almost all the 'artifacts' and 'antiques' as to example just why exactly the objects have so much value. Being told why works much better than just being told, don't do this. 

Jim and Freddie are happy to see that Azalea is a happy, social child although she shoos them away when she is with her friends, embarrassed at her parents hovering too close. She is clearly good friends with a girl that is quiet and observing like her named Nadia. The two girls watch as Jay and Rick argue laughing behind their hands without intervening. This will prove to be the truth of Azalea, that she likes to sit back and enjoy dishing on people. Her and her dad will have a lot of fun doing that over the years.

Homeschooling is one thing but then there is touring. Queen goes on tours, less than before but still and when Freddie goes on tour he brings his household of Jim, Phoebe and Joe. He doesn't want to pull her from her education but he doesn't want to leave her behind with someone. Joe says he honestly doesn't mind, normally he'd have too much work to look out for her, but with the rest of them away, he can focus completely on her.

Well.... 'completely'.... Azalea is in the garden playing as she often does. She brought home a friend for a playdate, the ever adventurous Jay. And Joe swears he only had his back turned for a minute because the phone rang and Azalea had never done anything like that but when he comes back outside she's stuck in a tree. Joe knows it's a serious matter and that Freddie would freak out if he knew but he can't stop laughing. Especially at her adorable pout at his amusement. He totally trying to teach her a lesson in consequences, he is in no way laughing uncontrollable. 

"Nicely done Azalea, you know your fathers will be home today. Do you want to get in trouble? Climb down," He tries to say sternly.

"I might need some help. I just don't know how to climb down but I'm sure I could figure it out only Jay said-  
"Hey!"  
"Jay said I might fall and break my arm so I shouldn't move."

Joe nods sagely. "This is true. Which is why you shouldn't have climbed that tree in the first place. I'm going to go get the ladder, please don't move and don't try to climb down by yourself." He hadn't realised she was unable to backtrack her progress. 

There is ladder on the side of the house just for this purpose, accessing the trees. It just normally -he really can't stop laughing- normally it's the cats that need rescuing. He lifts it from its hook and delays it until it's pressing against the branch. Once this accomplished normally the cats just jump down themselves but Azalea just stares at with wide eyes as she stares to the far drop beneath her. "Uncle Joe." She whimpers.

He sighs like he's put upon but climbs up the ladder. When he is at the top she carefully and slowly scuttles into his open arms, she has her eyes closed and her whole face screwed up shut, she must be afraid of heights. He carries her in one arm as she is too scared (and quite small) to move down the rungs. There is the sound of the door opening and Joe, now almost at the bottom step, turns around. In the doorway, hand in hand, are Jim and Freddie.

But that's when the branch breaks and without anything to lean on the ladder drops them both. They fall and hit the ground. She screams loudly and giant tears instantly start. "AH!" 

The two fathers rush to her and gingerly Jim pushes up her loose sleeve to relieve what must be a broken arm. Freddie starts running around like a headless chicken while Jim soothing rubs her back and makes a shushing noise. Phoebe, attracted by all the noise, peaks his head outside and makes eye contact with Jim.

At the same time they say, "I'll call an ambulance?" / "She needs an ambulance."


	4. Building a Cardboard Fort Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little lady wants to build a cardboard house, good thing Phoebe and Joe are her though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploaded 2/4/19  
> Updated 3/4/19

As the technology becomes available Joe begs Freddie for a new TV. Freddie doesn't really care one way or another but the Mew's, where Joe lives, isn't big enough for the one he really wants. So Joe is always popping off to the pub to go watch it there. Freddie doesn't particularly watch that much TV but what little time he does spend watching it, he's more concerned with the sound quality. In the end it's Jim that convinces Freddie so he and Joe can watch the rugby.

The Mercury-Hutton household thus purchases a 90 inch CRT TV. Which means it's absolutely massive as almost as wide as it is large. Azalea watches them unload from the truck with stars in her eyes. She doesn't particularly care about watching tv, more importantly that's a big box!

The men unload it from the truck and Phoebe guides them through the garage, the only door big enough for it to pass through. Having known this, the garage was emptied of its cars and lays empty. There is an area cleared out for it to be placed in the entertainment room. They take stanley knives to the taped flaps and squeeze it out, gently placing where Fred directs.

The intact cardboard box is dragged into the empty garage and abandoned. Azalea paces around it. Goliath, that fat cat, follows her. She's not sure if its because he's interested in the new thing in their territory or if it's the universal cat desire for boxes. She tries to rotate it, she grabs it by where it's resting and tries to lift it. Despite it being empty and only cardboard, it's heavy and unwieldy. And once she has it raised a few feet above the ground, its starts to tip over and she isn't fast or strong enough to stop it from thudding onto its side. Goliath startles and jumps. "Sorry." She apologizes as she shoots a glance at the door that leads into the house. No one has told her not to do this, so technically she isn't breaking any rules yet.

She heads towards the floating shelves where the garage tools are kept. Azalea flips over a bucket and uses it as a stool to reach Joe's toolbox. "Ah ha!"

Azalea is triumphant as she scampers back to the box. Goliath is curled up on one of the flaps, looking at her with his yellow eyes. She wiggles her found joy in his face. "Just what we need." Unlike Lily, Delilah, Tiffany, Oscar and Romeo that have enough light colored fur to know to fear a marker, Goliath just flicks his tail indifferently. By habit she opens the sharpie by biting down on the cap. "Ow!" She pushes her tongue along her teeth. She's had a loose tooth since last week but despite it's wiggling it refuses to come out. She opens the marker by hand and kneels before the vast blank cardboard canvas.

She hesitates with the marker an inch from the surface. In her mind's eyes she imagines herself pacing around the Garden Lodge. The lines, the shapes, the way the space is broke up by the windows. She thinks of their house in Montreux, she rarely goes there but her dad speaks of it, his efforts to decorate and furnish it so often she has a clear idea of what it currently looks like. A stroke of the pen cannot be undone and she has really started to understand this.

She begins with a door only tall enough for her to crawl through. She gives it a round knob like the kind she sees in her barbie doll house, rather than the elongated handles that actually exist where she lives. She draws a traditional square four grid window on the same side as the door. She goes to the back and draws an oculus high up. She imagines this to be the bathroom window on the first floor.

"Azalea?" Joe calls out. His voice doesn't sound far away like he's in the kitchen but rather like he's - She comes out from behind the box to she him standing in the doorway. Unlike when she draws on the walls or on the cats, Joe doesn't seem disapproving. He approaches her and looks at her preliminary work. "Would you like some help?"

Azalea nods ecstatically and her long thick hair is sent flying. He smiles down at her and ruffles it back into some sense of order, at least enough that her dark eyes peer backup at him. He takes a few steps around the building, pauses to stare at Goliath that stares right back, and makes two laps of it before standing beside her again. "Okay, we need a plan of attack. We need to figure what we want and how to get that. So what do you want?"

"A house like the one Ms. Valentine has," Ms. Valentine is the teacher of a daycare with a vast playground that includes a very treasured playhouse.

Joe nods, so it's going to be functional as a opposite to decorative. "Windows and doors," He proposes. Azalea looks at the work she already done uncomprehendingly. "Functional ones. I can cut them out, so you can open and look through." Now Azalea nods in agreement. "Do we want a roof?"

"Can it be reclosed?" She gestures to the spread flaps.

"You just want it closed, you don't want some kind of-"He makes a peak shape with his hands.

Azalea doesn't care. "Can I draw on it?"

"You want to decorate it? You could draw on ivy, maybe a texture like bricks..." It's clear Azalea isn't listening, just staring at it intently while clutching her marker to her chest. This normally predicts her defacing a delicate surface. Azalea is too young to really be any good at problem solving or planning.

He claps, which echoes loudly in the empty room. "Okay so here's what's going to happen. We are going to mop the floor so it's clean. We are going to eat a snack while it dries. Then when we come back in here, we can lie it down so that I can cut out whatever you want and so you can draw whatever you want. Then I'll pop it back up and tape the roof. How's that sound?"

The marker droops a little as she uncletches, "A snack?" She looking at him like he is the source of all the biscuits and sweets in her world.

"We have to mop first." Azalea nods excitedly and goes to try and replace the marker. Rather than let her stand on makeshift stool he brings his toolbox down and off from the shelf. He places it on the floor and gets busy moving the box while Azalea goes fetch the mop.

He picks up a corner of the cardbox and starts to pull. The 'fat' cat is heavy enough that Joe can't lift it off the ground. "Can't you just get up?" Goliath stares back at him like 'Can't you just not move the box?' Joe sighs but doesn't bother. He lets the box collapse flat and leans it against the wall with Goliath on the flap pointing outwards.

Azalea comes back trying to carry the mop. It's much taller than her and wobbles dangerously in her hold as she tries to pass through the partly closed garage door. "I couldn't carry the bucket. It was too heavy. Pheb is-"

Phoebe puts a hand out in front to open the door completely for her and she scuries to Joe. "It was too heavy with the water," Phoebe clarifies.

"Ah, Azy you know, there's faucet here." He points to the one under the shelves.

"Oh!" She looks concerned.

"It's alright, you'll know for next time." He puts his hand on her head again. She just as such a perfect height he can't help himself whenever she's near him.

Neither Joe nor Phoebe have been instructed to teach Azalea responsibility. Freddie lived, all of his childhood and as soon as he could afford it, with servants. This has made his both irresponsible and helpless. There is concern as to either he could boil an egg or wash his own trousers if it weren't for them. Technically, there's no really reason Azalea should mop the floor herself. They are both here, able-bodied and without other duties but the same way that Jim asks her to pick up after herself and put away her toys; they now ask her to prepare the area she will play in.

Azalea doesn't think anything on the matter. Not aware she's being asked to behave responsibly, but simply doing as she is told by her authority figures. And so adorable, tongue sticking out between her teeth and face screwed up in concentration she tries to wield the very tall mop. She dunks it in the water vigorously enough to splash onto the floor and her. The bucket has been filled too high and it appears that she has put in too much cleaner by how it foams. Without ringing it she begins to mop.

Unlike people whose height and muscle strength is enough to wield the mop, she can't mop in straight lines but rather squiggles about the best she can. Joe watching bemusedly as she makes a big messy puddle. Phoebe, loving soul that he is, is the one to step in and help the overly enthusiastic child. He places on hand at the top of the mop and leans a fraction of his weight upon it. Now all she needs to do is steer and guide it. He follows like that just a step behind her the whole way. She doesn't need to mop the whole garage floor, but since she's already started why stop her?

Once the soapy mess has been distributed all over the floor Phoebe congratulates her on her hard work and hands her off to Joe for snack time. While she goes inside to feast on cheese and bread, he stays behind to actually take care of the mess. He rinses the mop in the bucket, empties the bucket of the overly soapy water and fills it again from the conveniently located faucet. After rinsing the mop again, this time of soap and not filth, he wrings it and goes to work mopping up the excess soapy floor. Once that's down the floor remains drenched and will in no way dry by the time snack time is over. He has a long wide window scraper with a far reaching handle to clean the upper living room windows. It works just as well to guide the puddle into the floor drain. Now it can air dry naturally.

Azalea hasn't concerned herself with where Phoebe is. He is only with her less than half of the time, instead always there hand-and-foot for her father and that's where she assumes he is now. Instead Joe is presenting her with beloved snack time. Snack time isn't only pastries and desserts, first she must eat the 'healthier' things. Joe pulls out his appetizer dish that he always keeps in the fridge with lots of delicious things that change daily. It's a little hard for little her to eat health food which is part of the reason Joe prepares her tomatoes as roses with prosciutto and mozzarella. There are cucumber and carrot sticks to dip into homemade french dressing. And so on.

Everything set out before Azalea are things she knows and loves, so she hungrily eats them all up. Although when he draws two biscuits from the tin, she does have space enough to eat those too. These ones are deliciously almond flavored and go great with the individually wrapped Lint chocolate that Joe 'sneaks' under the table for her. There isn't actually anyone to sneak from, both because they are alone in the kitchen and Joe has permission to give it to her. But this feeling of being sneaky is both fun for Azalea and helps her value the treat.

By the time she's done the garage is dry. When she walks out there her fathers are sitting in fold-out chairs with cocktails in hand. Normally they relax in the garden under whatever little sunlight there is but today they have set themselves up in the garage to watch their daughter play. Azalea rushes over to hug them and tell them a detailed recounting of snack time. They listen to her patiently. When she speaks of her plans for her cardboard house they passively act interested. Freddie has about a hundred and one ideas but if what she wants is to be creative, he doesn't want to overstep his bounds. But being creative isn't the point; in this case it's not about the journey it's about the destination, she wants a playhouse like at the daycare.

As that's the case Phoebe goes from monitoring to directing. Azalea has the very important role of picking up and holding Goliath. At this she has had a lot of practice and is now an expert. The cats are also use to her enough that they don't try to squirm away trusting her to hold them. They lie the cardboard down onto the now clean floor. Jim redraws the window and door lines with a ruler. The overlapping lines are such that they decided to invert the cardboard but cutting it along one edge and tapping it back up the other way. Before this though, Jim uses a stanley knife to cut out the windows and along the door's edge. They invert it, tap it back up and lie it back down.

Azalea runs up to her room and comes back down with several picture books. Illustrated fairy tales and _The Hobbit_ all depicting house elements she wants. She points to ivy, bricks and mortar, a wood paneled door with a mailbox. Freddie helps her create this image. He lets her do the very important work of shading in. At the very end, on the back of the house, they draw the silhouette of a black cat. The silhouette is of an exaggerated cartoon classic cat shape which is far more slender that present big boy Goliath.

Once Azalea is satisfied with the exterior, they raise it up and use masking tape to seal the roof. She squeals in delight and runs inside through the tiny, child sized door before popping her head out of the window to wave to the men.

Then, in an act that men will remember dearly as being unspeakably adorable, Azalea mocks setting the alarm. As Freddie is so famous, he takes his security very seriously and thus has a house alarm. Before setting the alarm all the cats must be accounted for. In order to do this all the cats need to be rounded up in the living room. So she swoops up Goliath, who has found a comfortable warm napping spot on Jim's lap, looks very disgruntled about being securely reversed football carried into the makeshift home. She makes a big show of telling him not to move before closing the door and dramatically reenacting the beeping sounds the alarm makes when ones pushes the keys and the lock mechanism is in place.

Joe dissolves into such stitches of laughter he's bent in half clutching his stomach, while the other three watch on. Goliath, a little fed up, jumps easily through the panel-less windows and runs out through the open garage into the garden where hopefully fewer little girls are hoping to kidnap him.

 


	5. Growing Up w/ the Garden Lodge Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: What are the boys of Garden lodge like with her? What do they do together?

It is the nature of children that you want to raise them in your image. You want them to take the best of you, learn from your mistakes but also you can't help project the things you wanted but couldn't have.

Freddie makes a concerted effort to often carve out time of his day to do nothing but spend time with his daughter. He talks to her about what he thinks little girls are into, about fashion and princesses and pretty things like butterflies and art. But she'd rather play with cars and trains, talk about dinosaurs, and play in the mud with her Papa.

At first she's a little too little to partake in the gardening herself aside from fetching tools for Jim and hold the watering can but she has enough dexterity to help him. She loves being taught and educated on the garden and so Jim will inform her of how each plants wants to be taken care of to the smallest detail. She listens to it all very carefully and soon she begins to carry out a journal to take notes in. Her father find it quite funny to have the serious faced seven year old trying to write down what her Papa is saying in her big scribbley handwriting, but she takes her job as Papa's helper very seriously.

The homeschool tutor is very good with children (only the best at that price) and has them do all kinds of different activities to prevent boredom. Many of the activities are kinesthetic such as macaroni art. She has one such project, to make a pom-pom out of a yarn, that she brings home one day. It's a nice grinding kind of work like knitting for children, repetitive and straightforward. Azalea has the kind of mind that likes quite, steady, repetitive work and the tutor has definitely noticed.

When brings home her yarn project Phoebe offers to help and she lets him but he quickly realises that this isn't what she wants. He is working on the couch and she's pressed all along his side, ostensibly reading a book that is open in her lap, but she just keeps staring at his hands move, like the cats stare at the grandfather clock's pendulum.

He speaks in a quiet voice so Joe won't hear them as he works in the kitchen, "When I went to school the teachers would give us these boring, terrible assignments that were nothing more than busying work. Either to fill a quota of hours of homework assigned or to keep us out of our parents hair. I didn't want you to get bored doing something so tedious but I don't... I understand the duopoly is difficult for you, it is for me too. As your caretaker I do have authority over you and it is important you obey me as I have a fuller understanding of consequences and dangers of your actions; that being said... I don't want you to feel like you can't ever tell me no. If I have a good reason things must be done a certain way, I'll let you know, like how you can't touch or pick up the decoration because their age and value making them hard or impossible to replace. But I'm not a dictator and I don't want you to be a doormat." He proffers the half finished disc of yarn.

Her eyes get moist. Her previous foster family didn't care to explain anything to her, they just needed to be obeyed, always. But the boys at Garden Lodge are kind and considerate towards her. "Thank you," she snuggles up closer to him which is only possible as she half sits in his lap, "I like making the pom-pom. I'd like to keep doing it. But I wouldn't mind if you read my book to me."

So that's how Jim finds them, relaxing in the fading light of the living room, listening to the faint sound of Joe working and his radio, as Phoebe clearly reads a tale about valiant knights. And the first thing Jim does as he crosses the threshold is offer to help Azalea make her pom-pom. Phoebe tries to silently signal Jim with his face but Azalea isn't upset by all these busybody adults and instead giggles. "Oh, no? Is this how you treat your father's kind selfless offer," He leans over the couch to tickle her mercilessly. She laughs helplessly and she tries to squirms herself to freedom.

The next time she brings home a project Phoebe is careful in how he words his offer for help. When she is little she finds great joy in having Phoebe help her with her crafts. But soon the other boys come to help depending on what the project is. Using the dotted stripes on the side of continuous stationery they make paper chains, which is great fun to color in. Freddie sees this and teaches her origami. She's too young to do the complicated ones but he teachers her the simpler things like how to make a whale. She has fun telling him all the facts she's learned about whales as they draw a smiling eye to complete the paper animal.

When she's older she does crafts with her carpenter father, much better than any woodshop work class could be. They make her a wooden train that rolls and everything, it's the envy of all of her friends.

Despite her Dad's unintentionally suggesting more (believed to be) girly like interest such as princesses, the only thing she likes about it is the history. The history of fairy tales evolving throughout time and languages. The history of what High and Late Medieval Europe was really like. And dragons. Azalea thinks dragons are cool. Freddie doesn't try to shove it down her throat, it's just that she's a blank slate and he's putting out feelers to see what she likes. When it becomes clear she likes documentaries and museums and educational books, they accommodate her. Scholastic First Discovery are beautiful nonfiction children books that cover every subject with lovely transparent pages that make a delightful crinkly sound when turned. She reads them religiously and she now has moved on from only ever talking about her friends to also spewing facts of a scientific nature.

Joe teaches her how to bake. It's pretty straight forward and there isn't that much too teach. A few technical things like the order to put in ingredients; when making chocolate mousse you have to slowly and gently mix in the white peaks or the whole dessert will collapse. The real reason they do it is not to learn but because it's fun. And nothing tastes better than cookie dough. One week it's almond, the next it's madeleines, cinnamon to hazelnuts. Every flavor, texture and shape. Food dye, cookie cutters and large cake molds.

The other activity she does with Joe is ... unconventional? Her Dad never learned how to drive, living a big city and then being rich made it pointless. And Azalea doesn't really have any interest in driving more than that. She likes to learn about engines. And car engines are a lovely way to start. She even convinces Uncle Rog to bring some of his so she can compare with her Dad's cars. Joe teaches her how to check the oil, replace a spare tire, etc. She'll probably never need it but she likes understanding how something works so tactilely.

Freddie teaches her how to play the piano which she is interested in for about two seconds but then it's clear she just likes the way he makes it sound but has no interesting in learning it herself. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed but whatever. His disappointment is nothing compare to how awful it would be to push her into something she clearly isn't interested in. So technically they don't have one hobby that they do dedicatedly together and yet their relationship is strong. They just spend time together and play games. Freddie isn't teaching her anything from life skills or life experience but that's fine too. Not everything has to be transformative or educational, sometimes things are just fun.

The interesting hobby she seems to find all on her own is bird watching. Which Freddie hates, he can't stand still and he most certainly doesn't want to go hiking. This isn't actually a problem, she goes with her Papa and Phoebe to identify birds in the wilderness. The trouble is of course neither Phoebe nor Jim know any birds and so they buy little pocket books with pictures of birds and their names which studious little Azalea carefully reads and then applies. Meanwhile Joe and Freddie chill in a chalet where there it's warming and not tiring and sometimes even has hot springs or spas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put in like 75% of my childhood into this? Like 75% of Azalea things are me things only I did a lot more than just that. But very few things I have her do were new to me, I think I need to go and find someone to grill about their childhood to write more.
> 
> Oh and in the US continuous stationery is called continuous form paper. Would 10/10 recommend making pom-poms and paper chains.


	6. Azalea's Hair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Anon: I feel like their daughter would have that type of hair that's maybe wavy and manageble when it's dry but when it gets wet it just turns into this curly monster

  
Azalea leaned in close to the mirror. Most of her spots of acne were gone now that she was done with puberty. Instead she focused on her reflections thick wavy black hair that came from Dad's side of the family. If she didn't take care of it, if she didn't tame it, it looked like Hermione's. She had to sleep with it in a braid which wasn't always very comfortable and still when she woke up she had a bushy bird's nest. She had to blow dry it every time she wash it. It looked like a poofy perm most of the time, but she refused to cut it.

When she had been a child the long hair made her feels fabulous like Rapunzel so in the end it was worth all the time and effort she spent on it. Like is common of those of Indian Peninsula heritage she easily (if time consumingly) had grown it down to the bottom of her back. She wore it long through her entire childhood and loved to decorate with braids, clasps and flowers. But now she was in her first year of university she didn't have time for it anymore so, without telling her fathers, she wanted a change.

Her breath fogging up the shitty cracked mirror in her friend's apartment she held the scissors to the base of her tight braid. With determination and a few decisive snips, she seperated the long lock of thick hair. She held it in her hand and stared; it was heavy. She looked up into the mirror, her hair for the first time in her life only just came to her ears. It was different but it didn't make her unrecognizable. But she wasn't done.

She set the braid into a ziplock bag to donate and replace in her hands the scissors with Ed's hair clipper. It buzzed gently in her hand and the noise seems to be amplified in the cramped bathroom. She didn't understand why it was freaking her out, it was just hair. Afraid if she didn't do it now, she'd lose her nerve, she buzzed a streak down the middle. Well now she'd just look silly if she didn't finish the job.

She had set the clipper to leave a few millimeters of hair and so because of her naturally dark coloring, the short black hair looked very nice. She quickly did her whole head, there was no going back and now all she felt was excitement. She cleaned the sink of all her hairs and rushed out.

In the living room were seven of the house's inhabitants. "...That's quite the change," one of her friends, Ed, offered tentatively.

Azalea had a large broad mouth and a large broad smile that was splitting her face, "Yeah. You think my family will like it?"

Jay and Maybelle responded with equally hyena-like smiles, "Oh they'll certainly think it's a change."

It would be a complete surprise for them, she hadn't told them of her intention. She returned home for the Christmas Break to the Garden Lodge were the whole family and extended family (the band) were going to celebrate Christmas in a few short days.

She walked through the door confidently, she hadn't done anything wrong, and shouted out a greeting to Myra (Taylor), who was around her age, who shouted back to her.

Will Deacon son of John, a ~35 year old adult, came around the corner to greet her and help her carry in the presents. He stopped in his traces and stared at her, she just raised an eyebrow daring him say something. "Mr. Mercury! Mr. Hutton!" Will cried out like the terrible tale tail he was.

"Jerk," she retorted laughing, as he took some of her bags. He was just being a meany like when she was little, they both had an understanding that he meant no harm.

Tim Austin (first born of Mary and godchild to Freddie) also came to help with the bags. He laughed, "Nice nice. Do your parents know?"

She flushed lightly, "It's my hair." He just laughed again. The two of them had grown up as close as siblings. Azalea had been Mary's goddaughter and they had been neighbors all their life. They had fought like cats and dogs for most of their childhoods until Tim went to university and then because they were grown, 'mature' adults they were capable of behaving like rational people. Just like real siblings.

Carrying all her stuff they went to the open kitchen / dining area. "What's all this yelling?" Freddie asked Miko in his arms, Jim following behind him. They both stopped and stared.

"It's not a tattoo," she shot a look at Myra, "It'll grow back."

"But your beautiful hair!" Freddie exclaimed so forcefully that Miko jumped out of his hold. He hurried to wrap his arms around her to stare closer at her scalp.

Roger laughed hysterically in the background. Azalea turned to Roger, "I don't want to hear it from the man that accidentally dyed his hair green."

"Well," Jim tried diplomatically, "I think it looks nice. If you wanted a change, you are of course allowed to try something new. This is just..."

"It took you years to grow your hair out," Tim finished.

Azalea ran a hand over her newly shorn hair. "I like it; saves me lots of time."

Truly it had been a very impulsive decision. She had been at her friends apartment and seen the hair clipper and just decided there and then to do it. She had wanted to do something... not necessarily rebellious but distinctly different. Not just because it had made her feel more adult but more independent, a different person from just being her father's daughter. His public party personality, who she often thought of as 'Mr. Fahrenheit,' was loud and cast a great shadow. This was her little way of trying to find her own little limelight.

It took a little while after her arrival for them to settle down but in the end it's true that she hadn't caused any damage and she was free to do as she pleased. The public certainly hadn't been happy when Freddie had first grown his 'stache. It was just a very different change for someone that had always had a long thick mop of hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS I really did that. First week of university I passed a hair salon and decide to cut off all my hair after having long (til the bottom of the back hair) all my life
> 
> I plan on keep writing but please feed me with comments and water me with kudos :P


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their daughter accidentally made friends with people that remind freddie of the other guys in the band [she accidentally joins a rock band]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all help with typos is welcome

Azalea wasn't even quite sure how this nonsense started. She was standing in the background part of Marble Summit's stage watching possible the least competent vaguely musical people about to perform at the behest of their leader, Maybelle. This pub was right next to the university and was very popular with students. 

Maybelle at least played the electric guitar terrifyingly well. She was creative enough to write her own songs but she couldn't play and sing at the same time (her voice was quite good though). So she wanted to form a rock band and stocked it with people willing to work for the least amount of money possible. Jay was the lead vocalist and he had agreed on a temporary basis (he was saving up money before he joined the army). He did it on the condition that he'd sing with Cherry, a ballerina and opera-singer in training in desperate need of cash. Neither of their voices were anything special and their ranges were quite average. The last member was Ethan Greene on drums. Azalea had ableist preconceptions because her first thought on seeing him was that it was a joke. He was a shagged haired guy who looked like a stoner who prefer being called 'Bud' and always wore thick soundproof headphones as to not need to inform people he was deaf.

She was here because she was friends with Jay. Jay was, bless his heart, the biggest idiot she'd ever met. He was could be quite emotional intelligent and often had a way with people. He had always been decent at manipulation and reading people but it had really grown by leaps and bounds when he had been trained professionally at his job to do it. All that being said it generally took at twenty-minute conversation before people realised he hadn't had a high school education. He was also the least intelligently curious person she had ever met. He was the Patrick Star to her Spongebob. (It didn't hurt that he was handsome, charming and magnetic). He worked at the university technically as a security guard but the closest she'd ever seen him to the university was at frat parties.

He was suppose to be warming up his voice but instead flirting with the barmaid. Cherry was also avoiding doing her breathing exercising and hiding from Maybelle crouched behind the amp; instead she was cramming to finish a homework assignment on her phone before the deadline. Bud looked completely baked as he sat chill and unmoving behind his drum set. Maybelle was talented but Jay and Cherry had never heard a rock song in their life and Azalea feared they would sing it like a broadway song. From the light strumming Maybelle was doing as Bud gently tapped in concert it was clear he wasn't keeping time; had he put in the effort they might be able to be in sync. 

Azalea shook her head at the disaster she was witnessing. Maybelle was plugging in AUX cord to her guitar. Knowing what would happen she clamped her hands over her ears. The feedback made Cherry scurried out of her hiding spot. She shook her head in shame. "Hey," Maybelle called to her, "We'll be fine."

Azalea rose a skeptical brow. "You're alright and all but those three are idiots."

"Not idiots so much as... Mercenaries. I am the ultimate authority, I give the orders and they follow. I don't need them to be creative or do anything other than hit the notes."

A guy who worked at Marble Summit came up to them with a worried expression, "Um we need a name for the band."

Maybelle nodded with a blank expression, "Yeah um sure we are um..."

"Maybelle and the Idiots," Azalea offered.

"Maybelle and the Mercenaries," Maybelle corrected.

"Uh-huh," Azalea replied spectically.

"You'll be ready in time?" The guy asked suddenly seeming to doubt whoever's decision to book them.

"Yeah, sure of course we will," Maybelle said as crash could be heard. The drum kit's tom-toms fell off; Bud must have half-assedly assembled it. 

The guy left and Azalea gave Maybelle the Look. "We'll be good. We are good," She said reassuringly. 

Azalea reminded skeptically. "How about this, I bet when you guys play most students will stay around the bar and at the tables and few will come or stay on the dancefloor. If I'm right I get to spend time with Jay that he'd normally spend practicing with the band."

"How's that fair? If we aren't good, we aren't going to become better without practice." 

"I thought you said you were good?"

"Fine," Maybelle huffed, "Only for twenty-five hours of practice. And if we do keep the crowd you become our manager, until we publish our first album." Now it was Azalea's turn to huff. Her time was incredibly valuable. She worked part-time as the go-between when a law firm and their clients. This didn't give the same qualifications as a wedding planner but almost because it didn't just make her capable at having people work for one another but also made her know how to force people that didn't want what her employer wanted. 

"Fifty hours." Azalea countered.

"And a 10 city tour."

"Fine." "Fine."

All that was left then was to listen to them play. She sat down and ordered a white russian. She sipped it as the crowd trickled in. Jay remained flirting with the barmaid until the last moment, as Maybelle introduced the band he left the charmed girl he had been talking to. 

The lights dimmed and people talked uninterruptedly, unconcerned with what poor thing they were about to hear. Bud played a leading beat and Jay voice broke into the scene. It was as ordinary and unassuming as it was last time she'd heard it. He was indeed singing it like a broadway song using his theatre training. Then Cherry's sang. While on their own their voices were unremarkable, together their voices harmonized magically. They were all following Bud's lead as he couldn't follow theirs. 

When it came for the guitar solo Bud had to stop for a set period of time. Maybelle stepped forward from being back to the side and tilted herself so that Bud could watch her arm fly. Azalea was right, it didn't sound like normal rock. Most bands from Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong to Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis have similar sounding vocals. And every rock sound has a bassist. But not this one. Azalea wasn't sure she could on the spot state the difference between funk rock, alternative or progressive rock. Whatever they were doing it sounded really different. And it sounded really good. Shit. She was joining a rock band. Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drink kudos as much a coffee and eat comments for breakfast, feed your local author


	8. Chapter 8

It's rare that she attends her father's concerts. For a while Queen went on few tours as they all had children but now that all but the youngest Taylor are away at university or working Queen has been touring a lot more. Azalea didn't attend a lot of her father's concerts when she was little because she easily found it repetitive and the travel was terrible for her steady education and so she hadn't attended one it since she was ~15 and embarrassed by her dad's behavior, dancing and outfits. But they were touring England and performing in the city of her university, Birmingham. 

Azalea just stared as she watched Roger get his hair done in vague horror. It had all gone white years ago but the hair styler was still taking a lot of time to style it just so. Her dad arguing about eyeliner was just a normal day in comparison. Although their platform shoes were um... really extra. 

She had asked to attend backstage just because she didn't have anything better to do on her Friday evening. That was until the opening band had a last minute injury and couldn't perform. Miami came into the changing room all frazzled. There wasn't quite another band on standby and well Azalea was right there. She raised her hand.

Miami turned to look at her, "Azalea, my you're all grown up." He saw her every year, many times a year and has 100% seen her since she stopped growing some two years ago. 

"I sure am," she replied politely. "I was actually going to offer a university band because I know for a fact they aren't doing anything this early. Their quite popular with the local students."

"Mmm," Miami considered. Queen didn't just draw in the young crowd anymore, they drew in a considerably more middle-aged one too and it wasn't a guarantee that they'd appreciate such a 'young' sound. 

"What are they like darling?" Her father asked from where he was having his hair fluffed. 

"Well, I don't know that any one word really describes them. They aren't a typical rock sound because they don't have a bass but have some really strong vocals. Like post-punk, gothic rock meets funk?" Azalea shrugged, 'way to be really selling it,' she thought what idiot had made her manager.

Phoebe, who had been excited to see her, was enthusiastic with this vague answer. "That'd be so nice, something different that you like," he squeezes Azalea's shoulders in his over excited puppy-dog way. 

"I don't know if I'd take it that far, the student population likes them," she counters. She was notoriously difficult to please musically. She didn't really like any rock, preferring to listen almost exclusive to EDM and rarely to techno. 

"Anything we would have heard of?" Asked Brian.

'Have you heard of anything made after the two-thousands?' She replied in her mind. "I don't think so, they're very local, haven't quite finished their first album." A pause. "They do have songs," she jumped back in, "Of course, and they're like professionally recorded but they only have seven or eight for the moment and they've decide to publish them one by one until publishing the first album because it builds more hype and it makes it so people are talking about their music for months leading up to it. That's how it's done nowadays." 

"She's right," Miami thankfully chimed in to save her, "It's a popular way when starting out to build up name recognition and notoriety. Especially with an audience of young people that tend to buy more singles than albums and find about music through social media." He turned to Azalea, "Do you have their names and any idea how I can contact them?"

She held up her cellphone, "Just like-" She looked up Maybelle in her phone contacts and gave the phone to him.


End file.
